Moffat Sings RTD’s Praises, Tom Baker at 80 & The Doctor Who Wasn’t

Gather ’round, dear K readers, for your daily Doctor Who News Blast. Today we have for you tasty bits on Steven Moffat singing praises to RTD, Rachel Talalay talking Series 8, Tom Baker on being 80 years young, a one year anniversary of a VFX house, some new takes on the 7th and 10th Doctors, and updates on upcoming cast appearances! Read on!

Moffat Praises RTD

Doctor Who’s current head writer and executive producer Steven Moffat has nothing but praised for his predecessor, Russell T. Davies.

I was going to apply to write Doctor Who but they axed it that day and I didn’t realise Russell T Davies was doing exactly the same thing. What Russell did so right was he didn’t change it at all, except in so far as it had to fit into modern television. It was unsentimental.

Russell thought ‘I am planning it for Saturday night and want a family audience’. He also has a profound view of TV and he seems to watch several channels at once.

He knows exactly how to fit Doctor Who into the modern landscape.

“Several channels at once”?! Actually, that would explain a lot…

Rachel Talalay Talks Series 8

There is much talk around the Whoniverse about the role of women on the show and behind the scenes. Director Rachel Talalay (Tank Girl, Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare) has been tapped to helm 2 episodes of show’s upcoming 8th series.

Speaking with Bitch Magazine (via Den Of Geek) about being part of the show, Talalay was equal parts excited to work on the show and knowledgeable that she had a big job in front of her.

…every episode of Doctor Who is like a mini-feature and they’re all completely different. They’re massive. I’m so excited to get to work with the show!

Inevitably, the fact that she is female is something that will be highlighted when talking about any work she does, especially in a job that if usually done by men.

I did joke around with Steven Moffat in our first meeting. Immediately there was press saying ‘woman woman woman’ and so I said ‘it’s clear if I read the internet that you hired me because I’m a woman’. And he said ‘oh, you’re a woman? Maybe I just looked at your resume and your reel and your credentials and hired you because of that.’

One can only hope that more women will get to have these experiences Talalay speaks of and that someday gender won’t matter – just the quality of one’s work. (Check out the rest of the interview here, after you finish getting your daily Who news here on Kasterborous, of course!)

Tom Baker at 80

Eighty years old and getting better every day!

This past January, Tom Baker, the beloved Fourth Doctor, turned 80 years old. Baker recently sat down with Nicholas Briggs, the famed voice of the Daleks and Cybermen, to talk about his 80 years, from his childhood, his early years in the acting business, and of course, his time on Doctor Who.

From The Mill To Milk – A Year In VFX

When visual effects company The Mill, which had produced all of the VFX for Doctor Who since it rebooted in 2005, decided to close it’s television division mere days before work was set to begin on the 50th Anniversary special, Will Cohen and his fellow VFX artists wondered what happen next.

In an interview with Creative Bloq, Cohen recalled that no one thought the new series would last more than a year. It took many hours of hard work to make each episode amazing.

Fast forward to 2013, and wondering about their future, Cohen and his fellow artists decided they would start their own VFX company.

It was an act of complete stupidity starting a business up in the middle of a very difficult two-year period for the industry.

Visual effects in movies had had a very bad press for a good six to nine months. Both Digital Domain and Rhythm and Hues had recently filed for Chapter 11. But we just thought: you know what, let’s go for it.”

…It was a bit like that first year of doing Doctor Who – a bit of a blur.

A Sketchy Tennant

Vimeo user Erica Kobren decided to take a short clip of David Tennant from an episode of Who and give it the rotoscope treatment, animating it frame by frame. Check out the awesome results.

A VERY Different Seventh Doctor

British acting legend Ken Campbell was a very…unique man. Among his many exploits, a few of which are detailed by Us Vs. Them, was that Campbell auditioned for the role of the Doctor, but was beaten out by Sylvester McCoy. Campbell’s take on the Doctor was considered to be too dark…

Smith And Barrowman Added To More Wizard World Conventions

If you’re in the US, heads up! Both Matt Smith and John Barrowman have just been added to more Wizard World Comic Conventions!

Rebecca is still new to the Who world, but is no stranger to sci-fi, being a life long Trekkie. When not watching, reading, blogging, or talking about Doctor Who, she watches so many movies and reads so many books she has to keep a list of both so she doesn't forget any of them.
She wishes she could have been with the Doctor and Amy when they met Van Gogh.